Bollinger
Champagne!
The continuity of the Bollinger style rests on its own
House estate. It represents two thirds of its supply.

The dominant grape variety in the blend is Pinot Noir.
Among the growths, Pinot Noir from Aÿ represents the
majority. Among the clones, the main clone of Pinot Noir
planted is the 386 or Pinot Moret.

Thanks to its estate, the House of Bollinger can control
the dates of the picking and sort the grapes by hand at
the place of the picking if necessary.

The musts used for the wines come exclusively from the cuvée
(first pressing). If, however, the harvest is excellent,
the House of Bollinger keeps the taille (second
pressing) from the Chardonnay.

The first fermentation of the wines is done cru by cru
and grape variety by grape variety, in small containers
in order to keep the typical characteristics of each
parcel.

The vinification of the wines destined to become Grande
Année takes place in small oak barrels.The vinification
of the wines destined to become Special Cuvée takes
place in stainless steel tanks or oak barrels.

The Bollinger blends are predominantly made up of grands
crus and premiers crus.

To ensure the consistency of Special Cuvée, Bollinger
incorporates in the blend reserve wines which have been
vinified in oak barrels and kept under a light pressure
in magnums for between 5 and 10 years.

Bollinger's wines remain on their lees for a minimum of
three years for Special Cuvée, five years for Grande
Année and eight years for R.D. Grande Année and the
reserve wines age under real cork.

The relationship began when the Broccoli-Wilson family, producers of
the Bond films, sought a wine to match Bond's impeccable taste and refined
personality. Not surprisingly, they chose Champagne Bollinger, long
acknowledged as one of the world's finest Champagnes. A mutual friendship
developed between the Broccoli-Wilson family and the Bollinger family, and
Champagne Bollinger has remained a Bond favorite even as the torch has
been passed from Roger Moore to Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and now
Daniel Craig.

More about Bollinger:
Founded in 1829, Champagne Bollinger introduced the world to an instantly
recognizable, dry, toasty style that connoisseurs around the globe covet.
Six generations of the Bollinger family have maintained the trademark
style of their namesake Champagne and it is one of a few remaining Grande
Marque houses owned, controlled and managed by the same family since its
founding.

Bollinger relies on its own estate for more than 60 percent of its
grape requirements, including the Pinot Noir that gives its Champagne much
of its distinctive strength and structure. Bollinger is one of a select
few houses that can control the quality of its grape supply so carefully.
Bollinger is renowned for its use of traditional methods that include
extensive use of Pinot Noir, individual vinification of each marc and cru,
barrel fermentation and extra-aging of all of its Champagnes on the lees
prior to disgorgement

For over 170 years,
since 1829, Champagne Bollingerone of few remaining
family-owned-and-managed Grandes Marques houses in Champagnehas
been renowned for the quality of its grand and premier crus vineyards. The house is also renowned for its continued use
of traditional methods, including its almost exclusive use of
noble pinot noir and chardonnay, barrel fermentation, aging its
reserve wines in magnums that are cork-sealed, and extra-aging on
the lees all its Champagnes. To ensure the continuity of
its Champagnes extraordinary character and quality, in 1992
Champagne Bollinger published its Charter of Ethics and
Quality that outlines the requisite components of a great
Champagne. At Bollinger these are:

Over 70% of Bollingers vineyards
are located in grands and premiers crus and
have among the highest rating on Champagnes
echelle des crus scale of any Champagne house, an average
of 98%.

Two-thirds of Bollingers
production comes from the family's own vineyards,
one of only two houses to own such a high percentage of
its production.

Bollinger vintage Champagnes are made exclusively
from pinot noir and chardonnay.

Barrel Fermentation: Bollinger is
one of very few houses that continues to ferment all its
vintage-designated Champagnes and some non-vintage in small
oak barrels and remains the only Champagne house that
still employs a full-time cooper.

Individual Crus: To preserve the
character of each of its wines, Bollinger ferments each
cru and each marc individually, and keeps each
separate in traditional barrels until the assemblage
rather than fermenting in large stainless steel vats
where many marcs and even several crus could be required
to fill a single vat with concomitant loss of individuality.

Bollinger Champagnes spend more time on
the lees than most other houses, because the
longer a Champagne from noble grapes rests on its lees,
the more richness and complexity it acquires.

Reserve wines, exclusively of grand
and premiers crus, are individually aged, by variety, cru
and vintage, in cork-sealed magnums.

Bollinger has received the Royal
Warrant as Official Champagne Purveyor from seven
British monarchs and R.D. was served at Charles, the
Prince of Wales wedding and bachelor party.

Bollinger has been the favorite
Champagne of James Bond in his last nine films.

Bollinger has the only pre-phylloxera
vineyards in Champagne.

Bollinger owns the vineyard that produced Thomas
Jeffersons favorite wine from Champagne.

Bubbles It's a well-kept secret,
but each bottle of R.D. has 56,000,000 bubbles.

Seven members (in bold, below) from six
generations of the Champagne Bollinger family have served
as president of the firm since its founding in
1829. Their goal has been to offer enthusiasts a
unique wine whose style is intimately linked to the
history of a family that has chosen to remain profoundly
rooted in the singular interpretation of its vineyards
and region. In this era of conglomerization,
Champagne Bollinger has been faithful to its traditions
by remaining one of the last independent, family-owned
and managed houses in Champagne.

Future

"Bollinger today is quite simply a
blend of the past and the future," Serena Sutcliffe
states in the Cyril Ray book, Bollinger: Tradition of
a Champagne Family (Heinemann, London, 1994).
"Where the past embodies traditions proved by
generations to have been good, it remains as the backbone
of the firm and the wine. Where the future demands
new exigencies in quality control and consistency,
Bollinger rises to the challenge and arrives there before
its competitors. Today at Bollinger is constant
awareness of fulfilling a historic role in Champagne
married to forward-looking vision and energy."

1650

The Hennequin de Villermont family settles
in Champagne, at the Castle of Cuis, whose remnants are
still visible.

1750

Pierre Gilles Nicholas
Hennequin, Lord of Villermont, Cuis, Cramant, Chouilly, La Tour, Cuisle, St.
Martin aux Champs, and Champoulain (17 ? 1795),
moves to 16 Rue Jules Lobet in Ay, where Champagne
Bollinger is located to this day. There is no proof
that he owned the villages listed in his title; indeed,
he was not a man of wealth, though he did own vineyards
in Ay, Cuis and Cramant.

1763

Athanase Louis Emmanuel Hennequin, Lord of
Villermont, (1763-1840) is born to
Gilles. As a lad, he joins the French
Navy as an ensign and fights with the Americans during
their War of Independence, including in Chesapeake Bay on
September 5, 1781. By 1791, an officer, he is back
in Europe and fights at the battle of Maestricht.
During the French Revolution, de Villermont exiles
himself to Russia, from 1794 to 1798, where he is a
commander in the Imperial Russian Navy. With the
subsequent brief restoration of the Bourbon family under
Louis XVIII, de Villermont returns to France where he is
eventually promoted to rear admiral and governor of the
Royal Naval College of Angouleme. Unfortunately,
many of his lands are not restituted after the
Revolution.

1815

When the Russians invade Champagne in July
1815, they spare the village of Ay because of de
Villermonts service in the Russian Navy. His share of the family estate
survives the Revolution but income is low so, existing
Bollinger invoices show, he begins shipping small
quantities of the 1812 vintage of his still and sparkling wines, primarily
Cremant, to customers in France and the
English Channel Islands, though not under his own name,
as it was unseemly for aristocrats then to be in commerce.

1829

Jacques Joseph Placide Bollinger
(1803-1888) was born to a noblewoman and legal officer in
Ellwangen in the Kingdom of Wurtemberg. In 1822, at
19, he joined Muller-Ruinart (no longer in existence) to
sell their Champagne in the Kingdoms of Bavaria, Hanover,
Wurtemberg and the Netherlands. In 1829, with his
Muller-Ruinart colleague Paul Renaudin and de Villermont,
he forms the Renaudin Bollinger company on February
6. Paul Renaudin dies without heirs, but tradition
at Bollinger is so strong that his name remains on the
label until 1960.

1837

At 34, Jacques, who becomes a French
citizen in 1846, marries de Villermont's twenty-year old
daughter from his second marriage, Charlotte, and they
have one daughter, Marie, who eventually marries Jules
Moret de Rocheprise, and two sons, Joseph and Georges.

1870

Jacques exports his first shipment to the
U.S.

1884

Georges is awarded the Royal Warrant from
Queen Victoria and a year later from the Prince of Wales

1888

Georges and Joseph Bollinger take
over the business on Jacques death, and acquire vineyards
in the villages of Louvois, Bouzy, and Verzenay as they
expand exports.

1901

Georges is awarded the Royal Warrant from
King Edward VII and, again, in 1910, from King
George V and Queen Mary.

1911

Because Bollinger had always used grapes
grown exclusively in Champagne, the house is spared
during the Ay Riots when many Champagne houses are put to
the torch for importing grapes from outside the
region. Georges is elected to the Ay city council,
where he continues to serve during the German invasion of
1914.

1918

Georges dies and his son Jacques
(1893-1941), at age 25, takes over, following a career as
a glamorous and distinguished Farman pilot in the French
Air Force during World War I, for which he receives the
Legion d'Honneur and Croix de Guerre by the age of 24.

1936

Jacques replants the two-acre Cote aux
Enfants vineyard in Ay and purchases vineyards in
Tauxieres as well as the Duminy house and cellars on
Boulevard Marechal de Lattre de Tassigny (which today are
Bollingers offices) and connects them, via
underground cellars, to his own cellars around the corner
on Rue Jules Lobet.

1940

A month after the Germans requisition the
Bollinger home and force the family out (during which
time they take 178,000 bottles of Champagne), they demand
that the Bollingers return to work. To protect
their vineyards, winery, and remaining inventory, the
family returns to work in the vineyards and winery.
When told they are goldbricking, Jacques says
they require help and thus is able to free many of the
familys workers from prison camp.

1941

When Jacques Bollinger dies during the
Nazi occupation of Champagne, Elizabeth Lily
Law de Lauriston Boubers (1899-1977, married to Jacques
in November 1923), takes over. As they have no children, she is already deeply immersed in the business
and so is able to run it, even during the difficult World
War II years. During her 30 years as head of
Bollinger, she acquires additional vineyards in Ay, Mutigny, Grauves (1955 and 1968) and Bisseuil
(1961).

1944

On August 10 Bollinger's properties are
heavily damaged when a third of Ay is destroyed by Allied
bombardments to destroy German munitions, but on August
22, General Patton's U.S. Third Army arrives just in time
to stop the retreating German army from dynamiting
Bollinger's cellars and Ay.

1950

Lily is awarded the Royal Warrant from
George VI and the Queen Mother.

1951

Lily purchases from the Deuil family the
one-and-a-half-hectare grand cru Cote aux Enfants plot
between Rues de la Breche and Allard in the village of Ay, the vineyard from which Thomas Jeffersons
favorite wine of Champagne originated.

1955

Lily is awarded the Royal Warrant from
Queen Elizabeth II.

1964

Lily purchases Bollingers
U.K.
importer (since 1851), Mentzendorff, to assure the
correct distribution of Bollingers Champagnes in
its most important market.

1971

Claude dHautefeuille (1913-2000),
son-in-law of Lilys sister Therese de Valbray, who
joins Bollinger in 1950, becomes president, following 18
years in the French Foreign Legion. A year later
Lily retires, though she remains active until her death
in 1977. D'Hautefeuille, president of the Syndicat
des Grandes Marques de Champagne from 1968 to 1974,
purchases vineyards in Champvoisy and maintains
Bollinger's policy of quality and independence while
modernizing the company and increasing exports. He
retires from the presidency in 1978, becoming chairman
emeritus of the board until 1998. Heinemann
publishes Bollinger: Tradition of a Champagne Family,
written as tribute to the house by Cyril Ray.

Christian Bizot (1928-2002), son of
Lilys youngest sister, Guillemette, and Parisian
banker Henry Bizot, who joins Bollinger in 1952, becomes
president and increases exports to 83% of production
while maintaining Bollinger's traditional values.
He purchases vineyards in Mutigny, and discontinues the
houses Extra Dry, saying its dosage masks the
excellence of the wine. In 1989, for his commitment to quality, he is named one of only two Honorary Masters of
Wine. In March 1992, when criticism of Champagne
for its declining quality has reached a roar in England
and France, Bizot publishes a Charter of Ethics and
Quality that makes public its guidelines for producing
world-class Champagne; the family also begins listing
basic information regarding cru quality, grapes and aging
on each of its Champagnes back labels.

1981

For the first time, Bollinger bottles its
Ay Cote aux Enfants vineyard pinot noir, with the 1979
vintage.

1987

To honor Lily on the 10th anniversary of
her death, Bollinger establishes the Madame Bollinger
Foundation to promote the highest ethical and quality
standards in the wine industry. With its first
grant of 30,000 pounds to the Institute of Masters of
Wine in 1988, the foundation extends the Masters of Wine
exam to overseas candidates. Additional grants are
made in subsequent years, and the Foundation also awards
a Madame Bollinger Medal of Excellence in Wine Tasting to
the best taster in the Master of Wine Exam.

Given the accelerating trend of
conglomerization in Champagne, to protect itself from a
hostile takeover, Bollinger restructures to a family-owed
holding company, Jacques Bollinger Cie., with all shares
entirely in family hands.

1993

Bollinger creates the R.D. Circle to
ensure that enthusiasts and collectors receive their R.D.
in perfect condition, fresh and directly from the winery
rather than after months and even years of storage under
uncertain conditions.

1993

Ghislain de Montgolfier (1943-),
great-grandson of founder Jacques Joseph Bollinger, and
nephew of Jacques and Lily, becomes Bollingers
seventh president in December after serving on the
companys board of directors from 1985, and joining
Bollinger as director general in 1990 following a career
in agricultural research in the public and private sectors. He purchases vineyards in Louvois and
Vertus. In 1993, he becomes president of the
Technical Commission of the CIVC (Comité
Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne).

Heinemann republishes Cyril Ray's Bollinger:
Tradition of a Champagne Family, updated and with a
new chapter by Serena Sutcliffe, U.K. M.W.

2000

Bollinger holds a meeting with the young
generation (under 35) of Union of Growers, during which
many say they have a vision of how they want their
Champagnes to taste, but Bolly already produces such
Champagnes.

2001

Bollinger opens its first Bollinger Bar,
in the Le Meridien in Grosvenor House on Park Lane in
London in March.